“Yamanobe-no-michi” is known as one of oldest routes in Japan and a popular hiking route, which is rich in nature and cultural assets. This paper aims to clarify a development process of scenic evaluations and landscape conservation in the area of Yamanobe-no-michi, and to examine current ideas of conserving the landscape. The route Yamanobe-no-michi, which was rediscovered and indicated in 1941 for the first time, had come to stay as a hiking route, and lots of scenic representation had been made in the area along the route. The area has been conserved since 1960s, and the route of Yamanobe-no-michi has been ranked as a symbol and a nucleus. When the area was designated as a Historic Landscape Preservation District, a historical landscape council attached great importance to “mental landscape” composed of images formed by ancient literature. The area was designated as a quasi-national park, and a trail was established as a part of Tokai Nature Trail. This paper showed a rediscovery and indication of the ancient route afforded an opportunity to develop its peculiar area image and to conserve landscapes of its surrounding area. The route has become a substantial ancient route in the end.

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The comprehensive protection of cultural and natural heritage has been an issue and has also been discussed by the World Heritage Committee. Through an analysis of the current situation of forests in the World Cultural Heritage Sites, the following points are clarified. In general, 74% of all properties and 77% of properties and buffer zones are covered with forests. Within the forest area, 36% of the forests are planted forests and 20% are national forests. Most of the forests have been under the influence of human activity, which has resulted in characteristic vegetation. A local-government level forest management plan that corresponds to the character of the forests and provides comprehensive protection to the cultural and natural elements is essential. Moreover, the evaluation process for cultural heritage should incorporate specific description of the vegetation as this will lead to an objective assessment and effective management plan.

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“Yamanobe-no-michi” is known as the ancient road and a hiking route running along the east edge of the Nara Basin. This paper discusses the formation process of this route and its social background. Yamanobe-no-michi was clearly described for the first time on two guidebooks published in 1941 by Kansai Express Railway Co.,Ltd. Till then this route was an obscure route to visit the Imperial mausoleums and to hike, and was barely known to the public. Since building up people’s physical strength and visiting historical sites were encouraged, tourists increased and this route became important for tourism. Osaka Electric Railway Co.,Ltd, which is the origin of Kansai Express Railway, and its executives regarded Nara as a sacred place of an origin of the country of Japan and exhorted people to learn a primitive spirit of building the country by means of seeing the historical landscapes. Osaka Electric Railway and company’s editors encouraged tourism and identified this route as the ancient route called Yamanobe-no-michi and promoted it in their guidebooks. These guidebooks decided people’s recognition of regarding a hiking route as the ancient route of Yamanobe-no-michi. Moreover these guidebooks contributed to link landscapes to history and legend, and brought about new landscape representations.

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